We were blown away by the total pricing! We review a lot of restaurants in Warsaw and we have learnt that the average expected bill is about 100zl for two people, but Oliva falls in to the fine dinning category, so we were pleasantly surprised to receive the same bill for double the standard of food you’d receive in other local restaurants. Ten out of ten for pricing.

Our Personal Experience

Quality of food and Waiting time

When we arrived we already had a table reserved, so we were seated instantly. We visited Olvia on a Saturday night about (19:30) and we noticed almost every single table was reserved. This is something to note if you’re hoping to visit Oliva on a Saturday.

The waiting time was what you’d expect from a busy Saturday night restaurant.

When we were seated we were served with bread and three different oils. Our waitress was kind enough to explain the differences between the oils without us having to ask. One of the oils was imported from Italy, one of the oils was imported from Croatia and one of the oils was made in house.

The oils were full of flavor! It was nice to be provided with different oils. It was enjoyable to allow your taste buds to discover the difference in taste and appreciate the the tasting notes between the different origins.

The bread was replaced throughout the meal without even noticing. We never once had to ask for the bread to be replaced.

Our first starter of olives was served on a nice thick piece of slate, with two different types of olives and an empty tub for the stones.

The brown olives provided a slightly more bitter taste to the black olives. They were slightly smaller, but provided a nice contrast in flavors to the more fruitier black olives. The portion size is perfect for sharing too. These olives could provide a nice starter for between two to four people.

The presentation was very nicely done. This was a small dish, but presentation created a larger than life image. The cheese was amazing! Full bodied, firm yet crumbly and so deep in flavor you could easily get lost in it’s experience.

This dish is focused on taste more than quantity. The portion size is small for those who might be extremely hungry, but perfect for those who enjoy the finer things in life and would like a nice talking point before the arrival of the main.

My guests main dish arrived about three minutes after our starter plates were removed.

My guest absolutely loved this dish. Their comments were the pasta was perfectly cooked, and not limb and floppy. The sauce just lightly coated the dish for flavor and the pasta was not swimming in sauce. The dish included parma ham that was cut in to small pieces, so to add taste without taking away from the texture of the pasta.

The base of the dish is pumpkin. The idea of Parma ham and pumpkin is a not so common theme. Throughout this dish you will find medium sized chunks of pumpkin which provide a unique texture and taste. An uncommon theme, but very welcomed.

A nice touch of this dish was that fresh cheese was grated in front of my guest. Making them feel very special.

My order of Sirloin steak (200g) was served at the same time as my guests pasta dish.

This meat was cooked to perfection! It was extremely soft and buttery smooth to cut. Here at Warsaw Local we review a lot of meat, and we have became knowledge of what the difference between a cheap cut of meat and a quality piece of meat is and Oliva excelled the standard of quality expected by us. We fully recommend this dish to anyone that enjoys meat. You will be in no way disappointed.

This dish is not served with any sides, so I ordered a plate of chips to come with the dish.

These chips are cut slightly different from what you might be use to. They are cut in a ‘U’ shaped fashion, to allow for easy dipping in the darkly flavored sauce.

I’d recommend you order this as an extra to your steak to make it a fuller dish. At only 5zl for this large portion size, you have no reason not to.

Wines

We don’t usually include drinks in our reviews, but Oliva is different. They claim to provide a large range of hand picked wines to suit most of the dishes, so we feel our experience with the wines is important to share.

We are personally not very knowledgeable of wines outside of the basics, but we didn’t want to miss this opportunity to try something new. Our waitress asked if we’d like to pair a wine with our food and went along with her recommendations.

For the pasta dish our waitress recommended: Casa Primicia rioja

The Casa Primicia provided a polite flow of plum aroma with a bouquet of walnut. The perfect complement to the pumpkin found in the pasta dish.

The Luccarelli 2012 was juicy, vibrant, full-bodied Italian red wine that matched perfectly with the fleshy taste of the steak. Fleshy black and purple plum aromas and flavours.

Services

The services was some of the best service we have ever received. All the staff were extremely polite, spoke amazing English and were always happy to help. I personally found the wine list overwhelming, but when our waitress could see I was struggling to select a wine, she didn’t just point at any expensive wine and recommend that, she took the time to ask what flavours we enjoyed from our wines and then made recommendations from based on what we’d already ordered.

Our waitress paid us a lot of attention, whenever our glasses were becoming empty, she was happy to ask if we wanted anything else, without getting in the way of the conversation between me and my guest.

Our bread basket never went empty. Whenever our waitress noticed the supply running low, she quickly cut the fresh bread on a table near by and refilled our bread basket without us having to ask. Nice.
Decor and Atmosphere

The decor is beautiful. Very elegant and classy. It has minimalist feel with its bare wood and delicate lighting. This created a very romantic, yet professional setting.

There was a large party of about 12 people seated upstairs, but the design of the venue was perfectly created that we could barely hear them. Almost every table was taken, so there was a nice atmosphere of what you’d expect from a top Saturday night restaurant.

Language barriers

All the members of staff we spoke to spoke an amazing level of English. No question we asked went unanswered, and our waitress went out of her way to help us and ensure we had the best time possible.

Room for Improvement and things to note

There is absolute no room for improvement! If anything was changed at Oliva, it would not be the same. They seem to really care about every single client and it also shows that they care with every single ingredient.

It is important to note that it is important to reserve a table if you plan to visit Oliva on a peak time such as Friday or Saturday at 19:00 onward.
Overall, for the price you could not find a better quality restaurant within walking distant! We were extremely impressed and we can promise you will be too! Oliva is the perfect place for a first day or a Friday night date with the wife. We recommend Oliva to the fullest degree!

Warsaw Local was created by two friends, Robert an Englishman that moved to Warsaw, Poland and Joanna who was born there.

Robert went through a lot of problems due to the lack of city knowledge and language barrier. Joanna helped Robert get to grips with the city and it was such a big help that they decided to put all this information in one location to help the next Robert’s that move to Joanna’s beautiful hometown and then Warsaw local was born.